Meet Mortimer

 Rabbits beware!

What to Eat When You're Liming

Last night I got to host book club and An Embarrassment of Mangoes was this month's selection. I'm still about 30 pages from the end, but I have completely enjoyed it. Basically it's about a couple who took a two-year sabbatical to move onto a 42-foot sail boat and travel through the Caribbean. Each chapter ends with a recipe for the various types of food that they ate during their travels. Tonight for dinner I plan to make Bahamian mac and cheese on page 82.

In keeping with the Caribbean theme, I made Caribbean beef stew for the book club dinner. I found this recipe in my new slow cooker book. This is the third recipe that I've tried from this book. So far, each of the dishes I've made have come out tasting pretty bland, but that's easily corrected by tossing in a little extra this and that at the end. This dish seemed to get good reviews from the girls, so here's the recipe.
1lb braising beef
3.5 c diced pumpkin or other squash
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1-in piece fresh ginger root, finely chopped
1 tbsp sweet or hot paprika
1 c beef stock
14 oz canned chopped tomatoes
14 oz canned pigeon peas, drained and rinsed (i could not find this, so i skipped it.)
14 oz canned black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper to taste
2 dried bay leaves (this was my addition)
1. Trim off any visible fat from the beef, then dice. Heat a large, heavy pan without adding any additional fat. Add the meat and cook, stirring constantly, for a few minutes until brown all over.
2. Stir in pumpkin/squash, onion, and bell pepper and cook for a minute. Add paprika, stock, tomatoes, garlic and ginger root and bring to a boil.
3. Transfer the mixture to a slow cooker, add two bay leaves, cover, and cook on low for 7 hours.
4. Add the pigeon peas and black-eyed peas to the stew and season with salt and pepper. Recover and cook on high for 30 minutes.

Sock'n Knit to Ya

Natalie at Charlotte Yarn taught me how to knit lace socks this winter.

Spring Might be my Favorite Season

Went to the Grower's Outlet and walked out with sage and parsley,

lavender and oregano,

and strawberries. Also got some tarragon, thyme, rosemary, and three kinds of basil.

Bearded iris in the backyard

Cary bush

Unknown, but really cool. Only had one flower last year, so he must be happy.

Cooking with a Pro in Charlotte, NC

Hilary, not only showing us how to make cream of mushroom, but also teaching us some of the finer points of cooking.

The final product after a fun night of cooking. We highly recommend contacting her if you want to get your cook on.

Parquet Be Gone!

This is what the dining room looked like the day we made an offer to buy our house.

We pulled up the old parquet and sub-floor (notice there is no arch in the back right).

The arch is now in and Craig has screwed down and leveled all but one section of the floor.

JB wasted no time getting comfortable on the new floor.

Spring is Here and I Love Spring

 This is my favorite part of the yard. This past week we put in a new retaining wall (you can see it in the background). I'm going to plant rose bushes there in a few weeks when Craig's dad and stepmom are in town.

Looking back on my favorite side of the house; the azelas cannot bloom fast enough. (Is it me, or did everything bloom late this year?) The new retaining wall looks cool too, huh?

This is my favorite flower at the house. I will post a picture when it blooms. It's stunning.